The theorizing of the electronic text revolves constantly around what is "real" and what is not--whether the representation is of "the order of sacrament," or of perversions of reality orders of evil and malefice: a conversation posed as a uniquely post-postmodern crisis of truth, of body and mind and technology, of humanity itself, as though Socrates had never banned the poet from his Republic for creating representations three removes from the ideal, truth.

An inscrutable providence, of which our witness is the mouthpiece, has elected to set apart this rock in order that the devil and the English, who, he says, are a pair, may continue their work of protestantising and filling the world with malefice.

A white rag, an old bone lying in the path, might be a _malefice_ which, if trodden upon, would cause his leg to blacken and swell up to the size of the limb of an elephant; -- an unopened bundle of plantain leaves or of bamboo strippings, dropped by the way-side, might contain the skin of a